John Ross

Glasgow, Inverness, London, Sydney

Asia Pacific Editor at Times Higher Education (THE)

Welcome to the official @Twitter feed for @Lucidmessages #PublicAffairs & #business #growth division based in #Scotland https://t.co/NRWVutyUmh

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Articles

Short Circuit: An inexhaustive weekly compendium of rulings from the federal courts of appeal

6 days ago | reason.com | John Ross

A judge-on-judge benchslap, a pharmaceutical kickback, and a direct descendant of the Kings of France. | Please enjoy the latest edition of Short Circuit, a weekly feature written by a bunch of people at the Institute for Justice. New on the Short Circuit podcast: The eternal return of a qualified immunity case plus the long shadow of Judge Bork's VHS rentals.
UNSW scraps trimester calendar after workload complaints

1 week ago | timeshighereducation.com | John Ross

UNSW Sydney has confirmed plans to overturn contentious changes to its academic calendar, but it will take another three years to reverse its 2019 introduction of trimesters, citing the need for a “smooth transition”. Australia’s fifth biggest university’s “3+” timetable, featuring three 10-week terms and a shorter summer session, will be replaced by a “flex-semester” calendar of two substantive 12-week semesters and optional six-week summer and winter terms.
Tailoring teaching for disabled students ‘can benefit everyone’

1 week ago | timeshighereducation.com | John Ross

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Australian opposition pledges money for rural health training

1 week ago | timeshighereducation.com | John Ross

Australia’s opposition has pledged more funding for rural health training, in an election campaign that has largely bypassed the higher education sector. The promised A$100 million (£48 million) will help upgrade regional health training facilities, according to shadow health minister Anne Ruston, who said the money would “kick start” works to enhance teaching facilities, laboratories and student accommodation used for medical, nursing and allied health courses.
AI research summaries ‘exaggerate findings’, study warns

1 week ago | timeshighereducation.com | John Ross

AI tools overhype research findings far more often than humans, with a study suggesting the newest bots are the worst offenders – particularly when they are specifically instructed not to exaggerate. Dutch and British researchers have found that AI summaries of scientific papers are much more likely than the original authors or expert reviewers to “overgeneralise” the results.
Tiny preschools ‘have stricter governance than universities’

1 week ago | timeshighereducation.com | John Ross

Australian universities’ haphazard governance could stem from the trivial consequences many face for misbehaviour, with councillors bearing far less liability than their counterparts in tiny community organisations, an inquiry has heard. A new analysis has found that parents’ committees in neighbourhood preschools can be exposed to much greater penalties, if things go wrong, than governing bodies at universities with perhaps 300 times the students and 3,000 times the budget.
Dog days ‘better than counselling’ for relieving student stress

1 week ago | timeshighereducation.com | John Ross

The mere prospect of pet therapy alleviates university students’ stress, and the benefits of “canine-assisted intervention” flow both ways, according to Thai researchers. A Chiang Mai University study has found that 15-minute “play” sessions with dogs lower students’ self-reported stress levels by about one-third – with concomitant reductions in salivary cortisol and pulse rates, both considered physiological markers of stress.
Student loan debts ‘now a plus’ for Australian mortgage borrowers

1 week ago | timeshighereducation.com | John Ross

Australians with unpaid tuition fees can now access larger home loans than peers who have discharged their debts, under a seemingly counter-intuitive rule change from the country’s biggest lender. The Commonwealth Bank has reduced the “serviceability buffer” applied to home loan applications from people who are expected to pay off their student debts within five years.
Are Australian universities failed by too-short election cycles?

1 week ago | timeshighereducation.com | John Ross

Australian general elections are all too frequent. Much rarer do universities figure as an election issue. Yet as the country lumbers towards its 3 May poll, they find themselves firmly in the firing line. In an election likely to be fought largely on cost-of-living issues, higher education institutions have managed to paint themselves in all the wrong ways.
Short Circuit: An inexhaustive weekly compendium of rulings from the federal courts of appeal

1 week ago | reason.com | John Ross

White House press passes, Wikipedia edits, and same-sex weddings. | New on the Short Circuit podcast: We recorded an episode at our tenth anniversary show last week. Hear from Eugene Volokh and Raffi Melkonian about video dissents and one arbitration to rule them all.